1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to stationary or mobile forming machines for producing metal siding and rain gutters and other elongated contoured metal objects for application to the exterior of buildings and structures and more particularly to an auxiliary embosser attachable to such mobile or stationary forming machines used on or off-site to form seamless rain gutters and aluminum siding members.
2. Description of Related Art
Aluminum or copper rain gutters and siding are typically formed from a sheet of rolled metal stock which is entrained through multiple roll sets. The respective surfaces are progressively shaped by the roll sets to provide interlockable profiles or rain gutter profile configurations as predetermined by the configuration of the roll sets. A typical machine utilized for this purpose is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,607.
It has been found beneficial to roll form these sections of aluminum siding, rain gutters and the like in a length exactly matching the length of a particular surface to which the roll formed object will be attached. These are sometimes referred to as “seamless” siding and rain gutters. To accomplish these seamless roll formed objects, portable equipment is brought to the work site and the required lengths of roll formed sections are fabricated from rolls of flat sheet metal stock which exactly match the work-building surface to which these objects will be attached.
Recently, embossing of an exposed surface of these roll formed objects has received a great deal of favor as it adds a very distinctive appearance to these exposed surfaces of buildings. Wood texturing and other embossing textures may be introduced as desired based upon available embossing rollers in the mobile apparatus which may also be interchanged at a work site to achieve a desired embossed decorative effect. One such apparatus intended for this purpose is disclosed by Beymer in U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,666. However, in this disclosure, the embossing rollers are incorporated into the apparatus adding cost and are difficult if not impossible to interchange without substantial dismantling of the apparatus itself.
Add-on decorative devices which include pre-embossed decorative exposed gutter surfaces and which are attachable to the exposed surface of a conventional rain gutter are disclosed by Meadows in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,776 and Sullivan in U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,685.
A number of additional roll-forming machines utilized to roll form metal siding and rain gutters and the like are disclosed in the following U.S. patents.                U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,687 to Meyer, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,722 to Meyer        U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,592 to Knudson        U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,020 to Baschnagel, III, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,878 to Pliley        U.S. Patent D462,790 to Bullinger, et al.        
The present invention provides an auxiliary embosser which is readily adapted for attachment to the gutter or object discharge portion of a conventional mobile or stationary roll forming apparatus such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,666. More specifically, the present invention is readily attachable to the discharge end of the roll forming equipment manufactured by New Tech Machinery Corp. of Denver, Colo. and Jobsite, Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo.
Thus, by the present invention, existing seamless mobile or stationary roll forming equipment may be readily adapted to apply a decorative embossing to expose surfaces of roll-formed objects at a worksite or manufacturing facility without the need for additional roll-forming equipment and expense associated therewith.